Background

For over 20 years Eastwind ("Vostochny veter" CJSC) has been supplying high-quality software to Russian and foreign telecom operators. The company is a Microsoft Certified Partner and has the prestige Silver Certified Partner and Gold Certified Partner statuses, awarded through the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) program. Under its terms, the partner has access to the register of licenses, the use of which is subject to a number of restrictions.

To increase the competitiveness of its business, Eastwind planned to actively use cloud technologies. To determine the readiness of its IT infrastructure for the implementation of such technologies, to assess the efficiency and feasibility of moving to the cloud, the company's management turned to Noventiq, which has many years of successful experience in implementing projects in the field of Software Asset Management (SAM).

Solution

During the implementation of the SAM Cloud Productivity consulting project, Noventiq experts, using the inventory tool MAP Tool, collected data on the Microsoft software installed at the customer's site. In the shortest possible time, an extensive analysis of server systems and current PC usage was carried out in both development and production environments. The use of a local version of Microsoft Office of various editions was revealed, which led to compatibility errors and reduced time available for data processing. Noventiq experts recommended that the customer consider the option of subscribing to the Office 365 Business Premium. This would allow them to get the latest versions of Office applications, as well as use the services included in the Office 365 suite, including the Microsoft Teams collaboration platform and Exchange Online Protection, designed to protect corporate email from spam and malware. The use of online analogs of local solutions increases the efficiency of internal business processes due to the transition to a unified Microsoft communication platform.

Results

As part of the SAM Cloud Productivity project, Noventiq experts assessed the possibility of modernizing the customer's IT infrastructure using cloud technologies. The work carried out showed that 98% of the devices in the computer equipment fleet and 93% of the servers were ready for the implementation of the Office 365 cloud service. The experts formulated proposals that would help the client to fully prepare the IT infrastructure for the transition to the cloud.

Thanks to Noventiq experts, the customer got acquainted with the capabilities of the services intended for testing and development in the Azure cloud platform. They allow them to use functionality that is not available for the on-premise model, get support and access to various platforms such as Linux, Android, iOS in Azure. For example, Azure DevTest Labs helps you quickly create environments in Azure at minimal cost. To test the developed applications, you can use templates to deploy a Windows or Linux environment allowing to easily perform scalable load testing and create user training environments.

“After completing the SAM Cloud Productivity project, our team gained the knowledge to organize IT infrastructure with the latest Microsoft products and services, and get the most out of our software investment. The project helped us to look at the usual IT solutions from a different angle,” commented Andrey Pavlenko, head of the Information technology department of Eastwind, on the results of the SAM project.

“The SAM Cloud Productivity project allows us to identify problem areas of the IT infrastructure and develop recommendations for their optimization. By implementing all the proposals of the experts, the companies can increase the efficiency of business processes and significantly strengthen their positions in the market,” said Tatiana Eliseeva, IT consultant at Noventiq.